Stay Alert and Be Faithful

Notes for the Ekklesia Meeting
Sundays @ 10:00 a.m. Info: (651) 283-0568 Discipleship Training Ministries, Inc www.dtminc.org Today’s Date: April 23, 2006

Stay Alert and Be Faithful
by Dan Trygg

"But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. " Matthew 24:36-44

This passage has been interpreted in a variety of ways. What is clear, from verse 36, is that no one knows the day or hour of Jesus’ return. The Lord makes this point quite emphatic by breaking it down more specifically. "No one" knows, not even the angels (good or evil), nor even the Son. Jesus Himself, in His earthly existence, at least, did not know the time of His return. Only the Father knows. Why is this so important? Because people will arise who claim to know the time of the Lord’s return. Such people are mistaken. At best, they are only guessing, based upon signs of the time, and their particular scheme of end-time events. Beware of such people. They will lead you into speculations and fruitless discussion, which only serve to distract us from the main focus we should have, i.e., learning to walk with God in love, from a pure heart, a good conscience and an unhypocritical faith (I Tim. 1:3-7). Anybody who claims to know the time of Jesus’ coming is suspect. God has purposely not given us all the information (Rev. 10:1-4; cf. Dan 12:4).

The second thing that Jesus tells us is that His return will be cataclysmic, like Noah’s flood. People will be operating on a "business as usual" basis, right up until the end. They will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, right up until the time that disaster overtakes them. Just as the people in Noah’s day were unaware of what was about to take place, though they had been warned repeatedly over many years by Noah’s preaching and example (Heb. 11:7; II Pet. 2:5), so it will be when Jesus returns. Noah’s contemporaries had turned a deaf ear to the warnings of God, and had focused merely on living for the here and now. Thus they were taken unaware by the rain and flood when it did finally come. Luke records a further expansion of this teaching (Lk. 17:26-37). There, Jesus not only refers to Noah, but also to Lot and the people of Sodom, "It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; 29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed."

I grew up in a church environment that taught that Jesus would return secretly for His church. They believed that the church would be snatched away, followed by seven years of tribulation. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Based upon the prophecies from the book of Daniel, which Jesus referred to as a foundation for His teachings, and what the Lord Himself taught, there is no basis for a "secret return" for the church. It is nowhere to be found in the NT. It was the expectation of Christians throughout history that they would have to face persecution. As far as can be determined, the so-called "two-stage rapture" teaching first arose in 1830. It was, unfortunately, promoted by a branch of the Plymouth Brethren, popularized in this country through the Scofield Reference Bible, and became widely taught. In church history, it is a mere blip, but in many circles today, it is taught as if it is the only sound interpretation out there. It was common in that scheme of interpretation to view Matt. 24:40,41 as referring to the snatching away of believers at this "rapture" or hidden return of the Lord for His church. It is clear, however, from the context that the people "taken away" are not taken away to blessing, but to disaster, death and judgment. Like the people "taken away" by the flood, and those destroyed by the fire from heaven at Sodom, "two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left." "Two will be in one bed, one will be taken and one will be left" (Lk. 17:34; cf. the usage of the word "taken" in Jer. 6:11; "took" in Jn. 19:17). These people are not taken away for deliverance. They are taken away to death.

What about the "thief in the night" teaching? Isn’t Jesus going to come like a thief in the night? Doesn’t that mean that He will come secretly? Yes, Jesus did use the image of coming like a thief in the middle of the night, and warned us to be watchful, because we do not know the day or hour of His appearing. However, it will be those who are not living for Him who will be taken unaware, not those who are faithful. It is a common error in interpretation to misapply or misconstrue the point of a word picture used by a Biblical author, and make it fit into our view of things, instead of using it as the author intended. That is what has happened with regard to the interpretation of the "thief in the night" word picture. This word picture was used by Jesus in His earthly ministry (Lk. 12:39; Matt. 24:43), then by Paul (IThess. 5:2), Peter (II Pet. 3:10) and, finally, John quotes it two more times on the lips of the risen and glorified Jesus in the book of Revelation (3:3; 16:15). Each use emphasizes the sudden and unexpected nature of His coming. If you look more closely, however, it becomes apparent that those who know Him, and are faithfully following and serving Him, will not be caught unawares. Paul clearly draws a distinction between "us" and "them" in I Thessalonians 5: "For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; 5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; 6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober." This is actually the point of most of the times the word picture occurs. It is clear from the context that if we stay alert and are faithful, we will not be caught unawares. To those who are not tuned into Christ, He will come as a thief, but not to those who are faithfully obeying Him, and watching for His coming.

In the discourse recorded here, Jesus uses five word pictures to exhort us to remain alert and faithful.

First is the parable of the householder who, if he knew that the thief was coming, would not have allowed his house to be broken into (vss. 43,44). The punch line? "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will."

Second is the parable of the slave, left in charge of his master’s household (vss. 45-51). If he is faithful and sensible, he will carry out the master’s instructions while he is gone. Upon his return, the master will commend and promote him. If the slave is evil, however, and abuses his authority, mistreating his fellow slaves and living in luxury and drunkenness, he will be caught unawares by the master’s sudden return. He will be horribly judged and be assigned a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Third is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (25:1-13). They had gathered to meet the bridegroom, when he came in procession from taking his bride from her father’s household to his own, to initiate the wedding feast. As they waited, they all fell asleep. At midnight, the cry announcing the bridegroom’s coming woke them, and they hurried to trim their lamps. The five who had not prepared in advance to bring enough oil had to go purchase more, and while thus occupied were locked out of the feast, and were not permitted entrance. The punch line? "Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour" (vs. 13).

Fourth is the parable of the talents. Here, a man entrusts his servants with his resources, giving them differing amounts according to their ability. One man receive 5 talents (30,000 day’s wages), another 2 (12,000 day’s wages), and another 1 talent (6,000 day’s wages). When the master returned from his journey, he called his servants to settle accounts with him. The first two had gone to work immediately upon receiving their stewardship, and had doubled what the master had entrusted to them. Both were commended and praised by their master, and were promised promotions and larger areas of stewardship. The third servant, however, had buried his master’s money in the ground. When it was his turn to settle accounts, he gave the master what he had been entrusted with, having done nothing to increase its value at all. The master was furious. He rebuked the slave as being wicked and lazy. He commanded that the money be taken away from him, and that he be cast out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The final word picture is a scene of judgment. After Jesus returns and is established on His glorious throne, He will judge the nations. They will be judged by how they treated others, especially the "least" of them. Jesus equivocates how they treated the weak, needy and powerless with their treatment of Him. Those who treated people well, will be blessed and welcomed into the Father’s kingdom. Those who treated others poorly will be accursed and sent into the eternal punishment prepared for the devil and his angels.

It is important to see all of these parables in the context. They all are meant to convey the message that we need to respond faithfully and diligently to the responsibilities we have as servants of God. Being saved by Jesus does not simply mean we have received a ticket into heaven. It means that we have been purchased out from bondage to sin to serve God. We have been saved to serve. God takes this very seriously, and so must we. Those who stay on task, and do not selfishly abuse the Master’s provisions, or other people, …those who work to increase His kingdom, will be judged well. Those who do not will be rejected. Whatever faith they claimed to have was shown to be false by their actions. They did not live for God, so they will be rejected by Him. Those who stay on task will not miss the signs of the times, and be caught off guard by the Lord’s coming. Those who live for self will be deceived, and will not recognize what is happening until it is too late. They will be caught in the destruction that comes upon the wicked.